Palace Style pithoid jar
Π5459
Clay
Incomplete, mended and restored
Height: 70 cm. Diameter: 26 cm.
Pseira
Building AB, Room ΑΒ4
Late Bronze Age, Neopalatial period, Late Minoan IB period:
1500-1450 BC:
Gallery:
IVCase:
Not in caseExhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). The New Palaces. The zenith of Minoan civilisationPithoid jars
Description
This richly decorated pithoid jar from Pseira was found in a Late Minoan IB destruction layer but may be a survival from the preceding period. It bears emblematic decoration of a row of small double axes on the rim, bulls’ heads with double axes between their horns alternating with large double axes on the shoulder, and rows of spiral ornaments on the lower body. The most striking features are the frontal bulls’ heads, a rare example of two-dimensional depiction in the iconography of Minoan Crete. The emblem of the double axe between a bull’s horns is also found on metal objects and clearly indicates the cult use of the vessel, given the strong religious symbolism of both axe and bull. Taken together with the excavation data, the symbols probably indicate that the pithoid jar was used in cult practices in a domestic context, perhaps at a domestic shrine.Bibliography:
Seager, R. B. Excavations on the island of Pseira, Crete, Philadelphia, 1910, 23, fig. 7. Betancourt, P.P. The History of Minoan Pottery. Princeton, 1985, pl. 19Δ.Author:
I. N.Photographs' metadata